Forbidden Archeology_ The Full Unabridged Edition - Michael A. Cremo [187]
Verworn (1905, p. 50) believed that purely Eolithic cultures—with implements displaying no retouch, just use marks—had not yet been found. As can be seen, Verworn’s definition of an eolith is somewhat different than the one we employ, which encompasses slight retouching as well as use marks on naturally produced stone flakes. Our category of crude paleoliths differs from the category of eoliths in that an industry of crude paleoliths would contain at least some tools deliberately struck from cores and subjected to more extensive retouching.
Verworn felt that geological considerations are primary in determining the age of stone tools, because different levels of culture exist at different times. Even today, he said, there are people who make and use the crudest sort of stone tools (Verworn 1905, p. 50). Verworn’s methodology protects one from automatically assuming that a technologically advanced stone tool found in very old strata must in fact be recent or that a crude tool must necessarily be old.
Verworn (1905, p. 47) further stated: “Concerning the Miocene culture of Cantal, the facts teach us that we must guard against a mistake, often encountered in the field of prehistoric research when an ancient culture level is discovered. That mistake is forming too low an estimate of the culture in question. The Tertiary age of the culture in this case should in no circumstances force us into underestimating it.” We fully agree with Verworn on this point.
Verworn (1905, pp. 48–49) went on to say: “Concerning the physiological status of the Miocene inhabitants of Cantal, I would like to make a few observations. I have already indicated that de Mortillet’s conclusion from his study of the implements that the manufacturers were of small bodily size is fallacious, because the supposition that the tools are especially small is not supported by observation. I would, on the contrary, with a great deal of certainty say that the size of the implements points toward a being with a hand of the same size and shape as our own, and therefore a similar body. The existence of large scrapers and choppers that fill our own hands, and above all the perfect adaptation to the hand found in almost all the tools, seems to verify this conclusion in the highest degree. Tools of the most different sizes, which show with perfect clarity useful edges, use marks, and handgrips, lie for the most part so naturally and comfortably in our hands, with the original sharp points and edges intentionally removed from the places where a hand would grasp, that one would think the tools were made directly for our hands.”
Of the manufacturers of the implements found at Aurillac, in Cantal, south central France, Verworn (1905, p. 49) stated: “While it is possible that this Tertiary form might possibly have stood closer to the animal ancestors of modern humans than do modern humans themselves, who can say to us that they were not already of the same basic physical character as modern humans, that the development of specifically human features did not extend back into the Late Miocene? Perhaps the Miocene inhabitants of Cantal were so highly developed that we could unquestionably give them the title of human being. Such a proposition is neither more nor less likely than de Mortillet’s hypothesis of an intermediate form. On the other hand, what would prevent us from seeing in this Tertiary being a line of development parallel to the main line of human descent? All of these are simply possibilities that do not allow for proof or disproof, for the simple reason that we do not have any right to connect a specific culture level with a specific level of physiological development. So long as we have no bodily remains of the Tertiary inhabitants of Cantal, all we say will be speculation